Oldhammer: Are we a 'movement' now? Or are we a 'scene'?

It seems that other miniature fans out there, unconnected to our little 'leadhead world' are spreading the message that OLDHAMMER is the way forwards, for them anyway.

This got me thinking. Can you call Oldhammer a movement now? Is there a retro Warhammer scene?

What does Wikipedia say about these two key words I wonder?

Scene"A group of people producing a style of art or music with similar goals or styles/"

Movement"An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined within a number of years. Art movements were especially important in modern art, when each consecutive movement was considered as a new avant-garde."

What with Oldhammer Opponent Finder that Skarsnik has put into motion, as well as regular updates, thoughts, miniatures, rules, battle reports and rambles from Erny, Thantsants, Realm of Zhu, Gaj... and many others. We are clearly highly influenced by each other; what with Top 10 Wants Lists, painting advice, inspirational scans and discussions.

It seems these rambles have inspired others in far off lands who speak unfathomable tongues, wear strange and unusual clothes and eat equally strange and unusual foods... but share the love of the lead.

So, what do you think? Are we a movement? Is there as scene (however embryonic)?

14 comments:

I think and hope that you're right. I've stumbled across this oldhammer scene recently, but I've also been following the OSR scene for a year or so (if you're not familiar with that, it's a very strong and growing old-school RPG scene). So if this can develop into anything close to the OSR, it'll be fantastic. Having the oldhammer logo is very helpful for this. I think it's as important to represent this scene as a player/fan-based culture that wants to promote fun, non-corporate wargaming, so it might be worth including non-GW material (like other miniatures that suit this style of background and game).

The D&D Retro movement is a success because the rules are an OGL (open game license). Oldhammer got a probleme here since we all know there is nothing open about the Evil Empire.To make it accesible to the people there is a clear need of "required materials". The usual favorable comment may be "It looks cool, where can I download it?"

So the key is to give a series of resources available for all interested gamers.

Language is not my strong point! Though all of the resources required to play are available as pdfs. These are fairly easy to find online with a little hunting. I even did a post on their whereabouts some time back...

... so things are very easy to get hold of. I am a purist in the sense that I prefer to play with and collect the miniatures that were released around the time but I would never criticize another game for doing things differently. Afterall, its such a view that created the need for Oldhammer in the first place. Viz best summed up the problem in my post...

I also made a post on my blog (in french...) 2 weeks ago about oldhammer trying to touch the french playing community... It follows 2 post I did earlier about playing in the old times. You may find it here : http://www.treps.net/2012/06/25/osr-warhammer-oldhammer/

a) I too enjoy & still think the 3rd edition is one of the most creative & expansive fantasy war-game systems; however, the movement needs to be more than a trip down memory lane. (Otherwise only those of us who played with 3rd edition will get anything out of the movement. How can we get others to express interest in "Oldhammer"?)

b) Can the players pull together around the basic tenants of the "Oldhammer Contract"?

c) Narrative style war-gaming has been long removed from much of the public gaming culture. Perhaps card & video games have made our hobby the buggy-whips in the age of the motor-coach. How do we as players sell our hobby as different and better than quick play card games or the latest video game? ( I feel this is important; as we do not want to appear as lead-addicted-grognards who are lost in time. )

d) (This my angle - so take this with a grain of salt.) I feel the game has such a strong visual component that more pictures need to be published along with curious stories that develop out of these games. ( After browsing Warhammer for Adults, I found Gaj's battle reports and stories to be great but the links to http://cthulhuchris.blogspot.com/ - have inspired me to think that all of us can better expand upon the unique fusion of word & photo that only table top war-gaming can generate. Great work Gaj & Chris!)

Lots of thoughts on this, been having them for a while now! Rather than let this die out with one blog post I thought I'd continue the broader conversation on my blog, hopefully for someone else to pick up parts and continue on theirs.

I think we're more a scene, or as Erny puts it, a growing community, if we're getting into semantics ;) Either way its great to be keeping such great company of like minds! Mind you the word scene keeps bringing images of goateed beatniks doing there thang in beat up old jazz clubs - maybe that's just me though?!

Good to see Endakil getting in on the Oldhammer vibe - finally got round to following your blog - apologies for that!

Bruno - couldn't see a follow button on your blog?

Don't know much about the D&D scene but I have been searching out fellow Fighting Fantasy enthusiasts' blogs - not really a renaissance (correct me if I'm wrong!) there but nice to see some interest.

Back to Oldhammer - I'll have to work out how to get me one of dem dere logos and publish some of my own ramblings. May I just say thanks to Orlygg though for his sterling work in making lots of downloadable resources available and generally being an olympic class poster!

I reckon priorities should be - 1. Meet up and play some games (not just because my lovely long summer hols are soon approaching ;)2. Some painting or other competitions would be good fun as already suggested - probably the easiest thing to get done first.3. Loved the idea about a fanzine - or would a central resource like another co-hosted blog be easier to compile a list of downloadable stuff, self written scenarios, background and rules discussion?

"...It seems these rambles have inspired others in far off lands who speak unfathomable tongues, wear strange and unusual clothes and eat equally strange and unusual foods... but share the love of the lead...."

Essex isn't that far away?

As to the question, it feels like we're gaining momentum. Different people are doing different things independently of each other which appear to be contributing to our greater good. We're not a movement yet (more of a grumble, really), but we could be. We could be.

It certainly seems to be 'an idea whose time has come'. Do you think this has a lot to do with people of a certain age looking back wistfully to their misspent youths? In that case I can see clear parallels to other subcultural resurgences (from OSR to Old School Death Metal), which all seem to look back to cultural artefacts from a similar time period (mid-eighties to early nineties). Anyway, whether movement, scene, or simply a small group neurotic, ageing geeks, long may it continue!

If you're talking about a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Game retroclone, there already is one in the works. It's called ZWEIHÄNDER Grim and Perilous RPG. You can view it over here at http://www.grimandperilous.com